The single most important model in the hobby. Why a game is never one price.
Hangtabd Editorial·2026-07-15
Ask what a game is 'worth' and you have already asked the wrong question. The same title is three different objects, and each trades in its own market to its own buyer. A sealed copy answers to the preservationist and the investor; a complete-in-box copy answers to the collector who wants the artifact whole and on a shelf; a loose cartridge answers to the player. One title, three prices, three logics. This is the three-tier model, and it is the operating system of everything Hangtabd does.
Why one game is three objects
A price guide that lists a single figure for a title is telling you almost nothing, because it has averaged three markets that move independently. Sealed prices are driven by scarcity of undisturbed survivors and by grade; CIB prices by completeness and condition of box and paper; loose prices by supply of bare media and demand from players. These forces do not rise and fall together. A title can have a soaring sealed market and a flat loose market at the same moment — and frequently does.
Hangtabd presents all three tiers on every title page for exactly this reason. The tier is not a footnote on the price; the tier IS the object. Once you internalise that, listings stop being confusing and start being legible: the question is never 'what does this cost' but 'which object is this, in what condition, and which of the three markets am I standing in.'
Sealed — the trophy market
A sealed copy retains its original factory shrinkwrap, unbroken. It is bought to be preserved, not opened — the appeal is the untouched survivor, the object frozen at the moment it left the factory. This is the investment and archival end of the hobby, and the one that produces the headline auction records. Sealed value is dominated by two variables the other tiers barely feel: the exact seal type and the assigned grade.
CIB — the display market
CIB means complete-in-box: the box, the manual, the cartridge or disc, and every original insert present — but the seal is broken. This is the collector's tier, the one most people mean when they say they 'collect' a console. The object is whole and displayable, and its value turns on the condition of the box and the completeness of the paper. The discipline here is 'complete': a copy missing the manual or an insert is not CIB, and the market prices that gap sharply.
Loose — the play market
A loose copy is the bare cartridge or disc — no box, no manual. This is the attainable floor of the hobby and the tier the player lives in: it exists to be put in a console and enjoyed. Loose supply is deepest, so prices are lowest, and the market is driven by demand to play rather than to preserve. But 'loose' is not 'simple' — label revisions, board variants, and authenticity of the bare media all matter, and apex loose copies of genuinely scarce titles still command real money.
How to use the model
Decide which tier you are collecting before you decide which titles. A sealed collection, a CIB collection, and a loose collection of the same console are three different projects with three different budgets and three different disciplines — and mixing them without intent is how shelves end up incoherent. The three-tier model is not just a pricing tool; it is the first strategic choice a collector makes.